i recall when I was 9 realizing that one day mom and dad would die and crying about it by myself and asking God to keep that from happening

I have had such an amazing life. My mom and dad loved us and gave us everything we needed including discipline and spanking. I recall fondly the hundreds of camping/fishing trips to the Neches river camp my dad had. my brothers and I, cousins, uncles, aunts. Amazing adventures.

Eagle Scout – Father Vincent – Johnny Marble – an amazing trip that i wanted to quit many times. the mile swim, the 55 merit badges, order of the arrow, bronze palms, welcome letter from the president in 1972.

meeting my wife Leisa, dating, 1976, summer, the 4th of July fish fry. fireworks. some very good times.

marriage in 1980, tough first year of marriage while going to college, then graduation, starting our home, buying a house, Walt Disney World, pregnancy, Joshua’s arrival April 9 1984.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

15I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.a 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

God wants us to be truth tellers in all things, HE does not approved lying

15“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evilc from your midst. 20And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.21Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Fast forward to current events, Judge Moore in Alabama…accused of being very sleazy if not a child molester…in 39 year old charges that never surfaced until he faced a Democratic opponent in a Senate election with one month to go to the election…..

“would have us believe that they do not have a double standard when it comes to conservatives. When Sarah Palin was selected for vice president David Corn claimed, “Alaska’s getting pretty crowded…with investigative reporters and scandal-chasers.” Six weeks after being offered an exclusive story by Paula Jones the Post printed nothing. The Post’s managing editor, Robert Kaiser claimed, “We have an obligation to the Post’s readers to do our best to establish the truth and not simply to print damaging accusations the moment they are made.”

From Clarence Thomas, to the Duke lacrosse team, to the University of Virginia rape case, to Herman Cain, we have heard such charges before and the rush to judgment that follows.

Moore’s accusers issue the boilerplate caveat that if the charges are true, he should exit the public stage immediately in shame and certainly that is true. Then they quickly throw him under the guilty-as-charged bus that just ran over his presumption of innocence.

It matters not that Judge Roy Moore has been in Alabama politics for decades and his accusers were silent — silent until he threatened the establishment by being a credible candidate for the U.S. Senate, having dispatched the establishment candidate, Luther Strange, in the Alabama primary. Had Moore lost the primary, it is doubtful these accusations would have surfaced….

Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/thoughts-on-truth/feed/0johnbunaUsing what you havehttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/using-what-you-have/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/using-what-you-have/#respondSun, 05 Nov 2017 16:51:50 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1425]]>The Parable of the Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[fn] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[fn] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[fn] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/using-what-you-have/feed/0johnbunaSometimes heaven is silenthttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/sometimes-heaven-is-silent/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/sometimes-heaven-is-silent/#respondWed, 27 Sep 2017 08:57:46 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/sometimes-heaven-is-silent/]]>Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/sometimes-heaven-is-silent/feed/0johnbunaSpyinghttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/spying/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/spying/#respondSun, 24 Sep 2017 14:24:00 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1414]]>Weaponization of intel agencies?

Nobody wants our intel agencies to be used like the Stasi in East Germany; the secret police spying on its own citizens for political purposes. The prospect of our own NSA, CIA and FBI becoming politically weaponized has been shrouded by untruths, accusations and justifications.

You’ll recall DNI Clapper falsely assured Congress in 2013 that the NSA was not collecting “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Intel agencies secretly monitored conversations of members of Congress while the Obama administration negotiated the Iran nuclear deal.

Note — There is specific tasker from the WH to go after anyone printing materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode…

The government subsequently got caught monitoring journalists at Fox News, The Associated Press, and, as I allege in a federal lawsuit, my computers while I worked as an investigative correspondent at CBS News. On Aug. 7, 2013, CBS News publicly announced:

Then, as now, instead of getting the bigger story, some in the news media and quasi-news media published false and misleading narratives pushed by government interests. They implied the computer intrusions were the stuff of vivid imagination, conveniently dismissed forensic evidence from three independent examinations that they didn’t review. All seemed happy enough to let news of the government’s alleged unlawful behavior fade away, rather than get to the bottom of it.

I have spent more than two years litigating against the Department of Justice for the computer intrusions. Forensics have revealed dates, times and methods of some of the illegal activities. The software used was proprietary to a federal intel agency. The intruders deployed a keystroke monitoring program, accessed the CBS News corporate computer system, listened in on my conversations by activating the computer’s microphone and used Skype to exfiltrate files.

Patterns

It’s difficult not to see patterns in the government’s behavior, unless you’re wearing blinders.

The intelligence community secretly expanded its authority in 2011 so it can monitor innocent U.S. citizens like you and me for doing nothing more than mentioning a target’s name a single time.

In January 2016, a top secret inspector general report found the NSA violated the very laws designed to prevent abuse.

In 2016, Obama officials searched through intelligence on U.S. citizens a record 30,000 times, up from 9,500 in 2013.

Two weeks before the election, at a secret hearing before the FISA court overseeing government surveillance, NSA officials confessed they’d violated privacy safeguards “with much greater frequency” than they’d admitted. The judge accused them of “institutional lack of candor” and said, “this is a very serious Fourth Amendment issue.”

Officials involved in the surveillance and unmasking of U.S. citizens have said their actions were legal and not politically motivated. And there are certainly legitimate areas of inquiry to be made by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. But look at the patterns. It seems that government monitoring of journalists, members of Congress and political enemies — under multiple administrations — has become more common than anyone would have imagined two decades ago. So has the unmasking of sensitive and highly protected names by political officials.

Those deflecting with minutiae are missing the point. To me, they sound like the ones who aren’t thinking.

Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Smear” and “Stonewalled,” and host of Sinclair’s Sunday TV program “Full Measure.”

It was just a rather sizable, but otherwise plain-looking, plaque on the wall of the Spiller Elementary lunchroom.

It’s been at the Wytheville, Virginia, school for so long, no one remembers who put it there.

Here’s what it says – or rather – said:

Our Father:
We thank thee for this food.
Bless it to the nourishment
of our bodies and our lives
to Thy service. Amen.

That humble prayer is now in storage.

What’s that?

You say even you think there might be a problem with such a bold Christian expression in a public school? Especially the “Thy service” part? Because the courts have ruled this or that or something else?

Okay. That’s essentially the argument made by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which sent one of its threatening, copy-and-paste letters to school officials after hearing from (this is a quote) “a local member of the district.”

Umm, yeah, okay. We’ll go with that.

Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/about-that-prayer-plaque/feed/0johnbunaDo All Religions Lead to God?https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/do-all-religions-lead-to-god/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/do-all-religions-lead-to-god/#respondSun, 17 Sep 2017 16:44:03 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1408]]>there are usually two motivations for dismissing the idea that Christ is the only way to God, and we need to examine them both. The first objection is that it is arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way. How could Christians possibly be so arrogant as to say that all the other religions are wrong and Jesus is the only path to God? Often the parable of the elephant is used to illustrate the sheer arrogance of Christianity. It goes something like this: Three blind scribes are touching different parts of an elephant. The one who is holding the tail says, “This is a rope.” Another holding the elephant’s leg says, “This is not a rope; you are wrong. It is a tree.” Still another who is holding the trunk of the elephant says, “You are both wrong. It is a snake!” The moral of the story is that all religions are like these men. They each touch a different part of ultimate reality and therefore any one of them is arrogant to say they have the whole truth.

But take a step back and think about what is being said here. Do you see the breathtaking claim that is being made? Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, and Muhammad are all blind, but in fact, I can see! These leaders all had a small perspective, but I am the one who sees the full picture. Now who is being arrogant? It is just as arrogant to say that Buddha, Muhammad, and Jesus were all wrong in their exclusive claims as it is to say that Jesus is the only way. The issue is not about who is arrogant, but what is actually true and real.

The second motivation in dismissing Christ is often a question of exclusion. How can you exclude all of these religions? Jesus may have said he was the way to the Father, but how can I follow him and become an intolerant person who excludes others? Again, we need to think carefully about this view because the reality is that whatever position we hold will exclude something. Even the person who believes that all ways lead to God excludes the view that only some ways lead to God or that only one way leads to God. Every view excludes something. Again, the issue is not about who is excluding people, but what is actually true and real.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6). There are a number of possibilities here for why he might have said this, and exploring these possibilities is crucial. First, perhaps he was genuinely a good person but he was deluded. He was sincere, but he was wrong; he believed that he was the Son of God, but he wasn’t. In other words, he was mentally imbalanced. Or second, perhaps Jesus knew he wasn’t God but went around telling people that he was the only way to God regardless. In other words, he was a sinister character purposely telling lies. Or finally, perhaps Jesus was who he said he was. Perhaps he made these radical statements because they were true and real. In other words, he is indeed the way to God.

Amy Orr-Ewing is EMEA Director for RZIM, and Director of Programmes for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.

Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/do-all-religions-lead-to-god/feed/0johnbunaHow to believe and lovehttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/how-to-believe-and-love/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/how-to-believe-and-love/#respondSun, 17 Sep 2017 16:23:08 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1406]]>[1Jo 4:1-10 NASB] 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/how-to-believe-and-love/feed/0johnbunaThe Persecution of Christianshttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/the-persecution-of-christians/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/the-persecution-of-christians/#respondSun, 10 Sep 2017 17:41:32 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1403]]>https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/

Filed under: Uncategorized]]>https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/hmmm-did-you-realize-that-jesus-somehow-sneaked-into-the-u-s-constitution-do-you-know-how-many-state-constitutions-mention-god/feed/0johnbunaBook of Jonahhttps://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/book-of-jonah/
https://johnbuna.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/book-of-jonah/#respondSun, 03 Sep 2017 17:16:08 +0000http://johnbuna.wordpress.com/?p=1392]]>Jonah was a prejudiced man, he had no tolerance for the violence around him

God told him to preach repentance to the Ninevah and He said no and ran from the call of God.

[Jon 1:1-3 NASB] 1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

[Heb 12:4-9 NASB] 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

[Psa 119:27-35 NASB] 27 Make me understand the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders. 28 My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word. 29 Remove the false way from me, And graciously grant me Your law. 30 I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed Your ordinances before me. 31 I cling to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame! 32 I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my heart. 33 He. Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall observe it to the end. 34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart. 35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.

[Isa 44:14-26 NASB] 14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” 18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19 No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” 21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. 22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” 23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the LORD has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory. 24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone, 25 Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back And turning their knowledge into foolishness, 26 Confirming the word of His servant And performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again.

We must have a single focus on God alone in our secret place.

[Mat 6:22 NASB] 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

(a) For mercy, not justice. Mercy is the sinner’s attribute—as much a part of the divine nature as justice. The possibility of sin is implied in its existence. The actual commission of sin is implied in its display.

(b) For pardon, not pity merely, but forgiveness.

2. The plea.

(a) For the pardon of great sins on account of great mercies, and lovingkindness.

(b) Many sins on account of multitude of mercies.

3. Hell deserving sins on account of tender mercies. We who have sinned are human, he who pardons is divine.

[Psa 51:1-9 NASB] 1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.